The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 640: Tony Reno (Yale University Head Football Coach) - Writing a Team Creed, Leaving it Better Than You Found It, Going to Gettysburg, Leadership Retreats, & Winning Championships

Episode Date: June 15, 2025

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk ​The Arena​ gives you direct access to some of the most respected coaching minds in the world. Led by HOFer Sherri Coale, Brook Cupps, Geron Stokes, and Eli Leiker. Leaders who have built winning programs, led at the highest levels, and shaped the next generation of elite performers. The Arena is a Learning Leader Circle for Coaches only. We are opening applications now for our first cohort. If you'd like to be part of it, ​CLICK HERE to apply​. Once the cohort is full, we will be pausing applications. This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. www.InsightGlobal.com/LearningLeader In Patient Pursuit of Greatness – In the spring of 2012, General McChrystal was teaching a leadership class at Yale. That's when he met Tony Reno. He said about the meeting, "Not many things materially affect my trajectory. But this time was different. What was different? Coach Reno." The goal of the program: "Leave the jersey better than you found it."  The team creed, a pledge written by players on Team 142 (the 2014 squad), as they do at the start of every practice: "I vow to believe in the process, I am mentally and physically tough, I compete with passion and overcome any challenges. I stand tall alongside my family at all times, I challenge my brother, believe in him, hold him accountable. As I create my own path I always put team before myself, I strive for excellence on and off the field, I hold myself to a higher standard. I am a Yale football player." Standards - Every player must recite the creed. The younger players are coached by the older players. The brick tradition - At each practice, one player presents his brick, then adds it to the others in the tunnel-- a visual reminder of the team's solidarity. Reno instituted the tradition to build camaraderie through candid reflection. Hero, Hometown, Hardship, Highlight. Someone who has impacted you. One word for the season. His players went to bat for him. On December 28, Casey Gerald '09, a cornerback, and 63 other former players sent a letter endorsing Coach Reno's candidacy to athletic director Tom Beckett, and later to president Richard Levin and provost Peter Salovey. 12 days later, he earned the job. Gettysburg Retreat: Yale's football team takes an annual retreat to Gettysburg with McChrystal to focus on leadership, bonding, and team culture. Presidential Leadership - Lead people, but don't do it for them. When his players host recruits, they will tell Coach Reno if their character aligns with being a Yale football player.  Coach Reno names a player of the day for each practice. The one who lives out their values and the Yale football player creed. Life/Career advice - Help you become the best version of yourself in all you do. Make you an elite leader. Maximize you as a football player. Help you find your passion.

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Go to learning leader.com for show notes of this and all podcast. episodes go to learning leader.com. Now on to tonight's featured leaders so good. When Tony Reno was a senior in college, his football coach told him, you should do something you love. And Tony said, well, I love football. So we took an internship at a small Pennsylvania school making $3,000 a year. That was 1997. Today, coached, Coach Reno has won four Ivy League championships, sent multiple players to the NFL, and has turned Yale football into a powerhouse. But that's not what I think is most impressive about him. I love that Coach Reno evaluates his players on living up to their core values, on living by the Yale football creed, and by leaving the jersey better than they found it.

Coach Reno is truly about building leaders. He just uses football as a vehicle to do it. So if you desire to influence people, help them maximize their potential and leave a dent in the world, then you're going to love this conversation with Coach Tony Reno. So I heard about you from our mutual friend, General Stanley McChrystal. And he originally wrote about you in his most recent book. And so I also asked him after he wrote about you. And he said, I think this is spring of 2012.

He's teaching leadership class at Yale. And he said, you know, not many things materially affect my trajectory. This is General McChrystal. But this time was different. What was different? I met coach Tony Reno. And I'm like, wait a second. That stopped me in my tracks.

So tell me what was it about that meeting more than 10 years ago now, that you think you change the arc of this four-star general's life. That's, I mean, I don't know how I can respond to that. He's, he's, as we both know, just an incredible person and leader and everything. So I got hired at Yale, and as he said, you know, in 2012. And I took over a program that was a very storied program, but a program that had fallen on some hard times. And so I say to people,

all the time, hey, when you get hired at 37 years old, usually something's wrong. If that or you're just, you're just ridiculously good. And I was not the ridiculously good. So I took over a program that had, you know, had some issues. And one of the issues was the team had really kind of moved themselves in a situation where they moved themselves away from the university. So I was looking for a way to bring, bring someone in the university that might be meaningful to these student athletes, might be, I strike a chord with them and, you know, hey, you know, okay, like this is someone that's in the university and we can, we can have a way to get back in. And I'm flipping through everything I can, teachers and all different people. And I run into General Stanley and McChrystal.

I'm like, wow, I'm like, this dude's, this dude's here. And so I went down to my athletic director Tom Beckett and you know I've been on the job for maybe a month and I said Tom this is what I'm thinking and would you help me here I don't have much I don't have I don't have many people in the game here at Yale so I could use a little bit of your your time here and he reached out to General McChrystal's secretary and next thing you know Cheryl Ann reached right back and he said you know the general would love to meet with you and I had a lunch with him kind of gave him my I really Like, this is where I think we're at. And would you, would you mind help?

And he said, sure, I'd love to speak to the team. So about three months in, we were in a kind of an older lecture hall at Yale, you know, a really historic lecture hall. And he comes in and he gave this amazing speech about, really about how to work together and how to become part of a university and part of something, not just yourself. And at the end, I said, sir, I said, you know, I, I have a dream to build a leadership program here. And he said, I'd love to help.

And that was it. And that started, for me, the most meaningful relationship of my life. And outside of, you know, my family. And, you know, he's become someone who has been a mentor, a friend. Someone I pick up the phone and say, you know, hey, what do you think about this? I'm so fortunate. And so that started about a, a, you know, year or a year long meetings where we'd have we'd have lunch and we'd talk about the goals of how we could

build a leadership program. And my overall goal was I wanted to build a leadership program at Yale with my football team that could be the center point of everything we do. And it was like, hey, how do we build the most unique leadership program in Division I college football? That is the center point of all we do, and this is how we're going to win. And I think that was the piece that I had no idea what I was really saying at the time. But now 12 years later, it's been really the most, really the most magical thing we've done here at Yale, just to see the growth of our players. I never knew that that moment with him in 2012 was going to turn into this. And he's been, you know, obviously the centerpiece of it. What I think it illustrates, though, is finding people you admire

or look up to and then make the call, right? Reach out to others with an idea or a vision and get help if needed because now 12, 13 years later, you have a fully fleshed out, baked leadership development program that sets your team up for life, well beyond their. four or five years with you, right? And so I feel like that's something that, whether you stumbled into it or you were intentional about it, but this idea of reaching out and speaking with others can really change not only your life, but all of the people that you lead. It's so important. To your point, I've been very blessed to have a relationship with General McChrystal and guys like Greg Vogel and all these other people, Graham Lamb. I mean,

the list goes on and on. And what I found was I've been able to. I've been able to. And I've been able to take so much from this group of leaders. And every time, every stop, every meeting, every run up the hill at Gettysburg, or just on the bus or at a meal, I've been able to really continue to grow our program. And now, you know, 12 years in, our players are growing it themselves.

And I don't think they even know it. One of the things that is really important to us, we say all the time, like, hey, the goals of our program are you leave the jersey better than you found it. And as you get to that moment, junior, senior year, you plant trees you'll never see grow. And what we found was at the beginning when we were saying it, I don't think we really knew how to do it.

And now it's the most meaningful thing for our players, really the most meaningful thing for our coaches when they leave. Our coaches have gone, And I've got guys, three guys who have become head coaches, guys in the NFL. And when they come into me and I'm so excited for that moment when they're moving on and just achieving some great things. It's like, hey, you know, did I really, did I do it? Did I leave this better than I found it? And our players, our seniors and their exit meetings knowing that like, hey, guy, you did it.

You left this jersey better than you found it. And these are the things that you did to bring this program forward. talking about that for me some of the most meaningful things are when I have an older guy who you know graduates and then a two or three years later I have a younger guy you say to me hey this is how Ryan showed me how to do it and I want to I want to do it because he showed me the way and that continues to move us forward and that's been something that's been the most gratifying thing for me it's such a way to just live life of can I I leave people, places, and things better than I found them. You could have that be a daily goal.

And I love that that's a big part of the Yale program. I got to ask about Gettysburg. You mentioned it. We've both spent time there with General McChrystal. You guys go every year. Coach, I think this could be a portable lesson, not only for a football coach, but for all leaders within business of how to run a good leadership offsite. So could you take me inside, both the planning and the execution of your trip to Gettysburg every year with your players. It's just the seniors. Is that right? It is.

Yeah. So when you take your senior, so your senior leaders, much like the senior leaders of a company, they could take their senior people. So both whether you run a team or you run a business, I'm curious, I think this works either way. But the planning and the execution of your trip to Gettysburg with General McChrystal. People ask me about it. It's magical. It really is.

I think that obviously the two things work well, incredibly well together. One of the most historic things in American history. And you're at a place that truly speaks to you in the Gettysburg battlefield. And the town itself, it's just a really, really, as you know, a really special place. But it's our leadership program starts in freshman year with our young guys. And it's really on building them individually and building them. as a class and it's so important for them as freshmen when they come in to hey learned about this in recruiting you know i learned about hey this is something we're going to do and okay let's start this

process and then what happens is our program really goes through two three years and then finally it's like okay this is really going to happen we're going to go to gettysburg when they've probably they've met general mcrystal they've been you know very very important pieces of our program as far leadership, the players, I mean, they don't really know what this is going to be. So we get on the bus, and it's about a five-hour bus ride. I hand them a handout of the players, General McChrystal, and the gentleman, the people he's going to bring with them, you know, amazing leaders, right? And what I do is I stand, I kind of stand in front of the on the bus. And so if you think about it, is 25 people there. And I ask them all to read it at the same time. And they do. And one of the most

gratifying things for me is they they get done reading it and their head pops up with their mouth wide open and it's like oh wow we're going to meet these people we're going to spend time with these people did this and they realize others who mcrystal brings with them mcrystal and everyone else and it's it's like okay these are these are some amazing leaders who've done some amazing amazing things and this is real okay And so the most important thing about the trip is what we're trying to do is use Gettysburg as a backdrop of trying to get this group of people to take the next step of being connected together. How do we get up one more notch of being a group of people that really wants to do things for each other, not for themselves? And we think we at this point, we feel like we're probably, you know, a decent way there,

but we need something else to really do that. So we get to Gettysburg, we check in the hotel, and General McChrystal does an amazing, really setting the scene of like how did these two armies get there and just talking about how there's people in this room that are very similar to these people that are fighting this fighting this battle. And what makes it so gratifying and what makes it so different is they're doing these things for the guy next to them, for the people at home, but really for the guy next door. And that's what's separating them from others. And as we go along the night, some really meaningful conversations happen, really amongst the players. And a lot of it has to do with

the relationships they've built over four years. And a big part of our program, I would say the heartbeat of our program is relationships. And how will you, I always say, hey, put your teammates first and yourself last and everything you do. And if we can do that, then we have a chance. Then we have a chance to be someone in a group of people who are chasing elite. And as these soldiers were, you know, they were. were doing things for each other, not for themselves. What happens over that first night is the, I think, conversations happen between this group of guys who really walked into a school together

four years ago, but now they're different people. Now they're sitting at the table of leadership that they probably didn't think they were going to get to, or maybe thought they'd get there, but it just wasn't, this wasn't registering for them because they didn't have to sit there. And as they're sitting in this room at a hotel in Gettysburg, they really can figure out like, wow, okay, we're here now. And now we've got to really, if we're going to really leave this team better than we found it, we're going to have to really come together. And one of the things we do here, and, you know, I'd like to say, which I believe, and it's always nice when you can believe these things, right? But we're the first school in Division I football to number our teams.

So, you know, this year's team is the 152nd team of football at Yale. And the reason we did it is we were looking for a way for each team to realize that a big piece of who they are is going to be remembered forever. And as Team 52 has a part of the legacy of Yale football, team 150. does as well. And if we really are going to be someone who we say we are, we better, for sure, make Team 152 better than Team 151. So as those guys sit in that room, there's got to be a piece of them that they realize that, okay, hey, we can do this.

And as those guys in that battle, how do we do this together? So we do that the second day, well, the next morning, and we take a job, up to where President Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address. And we're up that, we're up on the, we're up on the top of Cemetery Ridge at about, you know, 6.30 in the morning. And you can just, it's beautiful in a, in an April morning where it's, you know, I don't know, 50 degrees, sometimes 40 degrees. Who knows? Could be 30 degrees.

But that has nothing to do with it. What has everything to do with it is the people that are there doing. it together and really taking the moment to look at what had been done in American history and how there were people working together to really accomplish something incredible. And that's how we go within the first two days. And then we do, and we stop at a four, we go back, have breakfast, and we stocked at a few spots on the battlefield, which, you know, and I think are very significant because there are spots where there was an amazing leadership that was.

was shown during the battle, and it was done for others. It was people putting themselves out there to try and make sure that the people they were with had an opportunity to really accomplish something uncommon. Yeah. I remember General Mercosal was so good about, like, each spot having a teacher, and sometimes it was him. So I'm sure he does the same for you guys, but when we wanted the early morning run, And we got to a couple spots before we went back for breakfast.

And he had like a British special forces guy there. I don't know if he brings them with you guys who had this insane accent and just looked exactly like you would expect a British special forces guy to look and sound. And I was like, oh my goodness. This is like a movie. It literally felt better than a movie hearing the guy describe that specific battle and the leadership that it took to overcome the adversity. And oh my God, I just remember thinking, like, I can't believe I'm here. Like, this is the coolest thing ever. So the fact that you guys do that every year with your seniors is such a gift for those players.

Yeah, it sure is. And I'm betting it's Sir Graham Lamb. Yeah, I think that, exactly. So is it the same guy who goes every year with you guys? We've been so fortunate that the relationships that Jeremy Crystal has with General Lamb and Greg Vogel, who've been really the cornerstones with him with Jeremy Crystal of our program, for the last 12 years. Yeah, and they've become great mentors and great friends.

And, you know, I've been so fortunate. And our players and coaches have been so fortunate to have these relationships with these amazing leaders. A couple things you said before. One, I love that you number your teams, which I was reading about when I was preparing. Two, I like that you have a team creed, which I believe was written by Team 142. I like to read it and then have you describe the idea of a Team Creed and why it's this specific one that came from 142. And that is, I vow to believe in the process. I am mentally and

physically tough. I compete with passion and overcome any challenges. I stand tall alongside my family at all times. I challenge my brother, believe in him, hold him accountable. As I create my own path, I always put team before myself. I strive for excellence on and off the field. I hold myself to a higher standard. I am a Yale football player. Tell me more about this idea of having a creed and how the team came up with it and why it means so much to you. The genesis of it was our first trip to Gettysburg was on our second team. And we're coming back from Gettysburg and General McChrystal actually was on the bus with us. And we're about halfway, we're about halfway way to New Haven. And General McChrystal and I are just talking about what's next. Okay, where we are,

what's next? And he looks at me and he says, does every coach know what a Yale football player is? I looked at him and I said, I think so. And he says, every player know what a Yale football player is. And I said, I don't know. So we get talking about elite teams. In elite, elite groups, elite companies, where there's these teams, you walk through a facility, there's these companies, you walk through a business, and there's words, there's, hey, we have our core values, this is who we are. And as you walk throughout the company, the business, the sports team, and you walk up to a player, a coach, a business member, and you say, hey, what are the core values? And they look at you kind of, what do you mean core values? Or, uh, uh, I, uh,

I don't know what they are. Yeah, I know we have core values, but I don't know what they are. And then you talk about elite teams, and it's like that. It's that fat because they not only know what they are, they not only believe what they are, but they actually believe what they are. And so we got talking about some of those teams. And we got back that Monday, and I walked in my staff meeting, and I said, okay, guys. his pen his a pen his paper what's a Yale football player so you know staff looked at me like they

like what happened to Coatrina this weekend you know and we came up with it was it was 60 some odd words for you know there was 20 guys talk about a completely dysfunctional group and then I had a team meeting the next day and I did same exercise and it was over 150 words with completely a group that had no idea who we were. So at that time, second year in, we're really trying to build who we are. I had the players elect a leadership council. So at Yale, I don't know how many people know, but Yale has one captain. It's a one captain system for all sports, and the players vote on it. Coaches do not have a vote. The actual ballots are counted by one of the athletic directors. So I'll get a phone, I'll get a phone call and hey, Tony, you know,

Ryan's, Ryan was an elected captain. You could tell them, you know, and however you want to handle it. That's how it's done. Right. So, you know, it's been done that way since, you know, at the beginning of the captains at Yale. And which is really, really unique. So what I had the players do was I had them at that time, I had the players elect two, two players from each class and the captain. So you had nine people in the group. And I went to the players and I said, all right, guys, this is, this is what, this is my ask. We need to come up with core values and we need to come up with a creed. And these are the reasons why. And basically what I just said to you about elite groups and people in groups who just have words. And I said, really, I, I am going to be here to help,

but this has got to be yours. And the captain of the team 142 was a really amazing leader, Dionne Randall. He's actually now a scout with the Denver Broncos. But just like selfless, tough, everything was about the team, nothing about him, just all the things you look for in a leader.

And this group of nine came up with, you know, core values and which are in that creed. And they put together, this creed and it took them i don't know i think might have been in half a dozen meetings they introduced it to the team and i said all right guys there's got to be there's got to be standards to the game coaches players standards to the game and what are they and what they came up with was every player on the team to have a why on their helmet needs to be able to stand in front of their teammates and recite the creed and it has to be perfect and for some reason it's not perfect you have an

opportunity to do it again but you don't get a why wow one of the one of the most magical moments of preseason every year is the freshman getting up in front of the team and reciting the creed now the ask of my only ask of this piece piece was, and this is the only piece I have of this whole piece, was that I said, I love all of it, but it has to be that the older guys have to teach the younger guys. And for some reason, if a young guy doesn't get it, it's on the older guys. So that there's not a- Everybody's bought into this. Everybody's bought into it. Is this similar to, I think it was on one of the military movies where they had the young Navy SEALs stand up in front of the group of the other SEALs and recite.

I think it was their, I don't know if they called it their creed, but it sounds something similar. Did you derive that from the military or is this something you just came up with to say, hey, everybody's going to memorize this and know it inside it out and then be able to say it in front of the team? Gentleman Crystal and I spoke about the creeds, the Ranger Creed, the creeds of all the special op units, a piece of that. And so a lot of this did come from that. The piece of the older guys teaching the younger guys could very well be from special ops. But we took that as something we wanted to make ours as well. I love it. Well, just because the best teams that I've been a part of, and I'd be curious to hear what you think about this, certainly had good coaches.

they were player-led teams. The players, in practice, if a guy wasn't going as hard as he could go, before a coach could even say anything, another player would say something. When people ask me, what's the difference between, because I've been on losing teams, too, what's the biggest difference between the teams that I was on that won a lot versus the teams that didn't? I think it's that. I think it's that thing where the players actually spoke up before a coach can even get to them. Now, the coaches did their thing too, right?

And they created the environment where that could happen. And they built on some of the player-led accountability stuff. But I'm curious how you have built, and it sounds like it starts with the creed, a place where the players hold each other accountable just as much, if not more, than the coaches do. So much of it is exactly what you said, you know. And that was so the creed was the start of it. Now, we don't have a lot of words. We don't have, like, we have a pyramid with some things that are in it, you know, that we use year in, year out.

But the basis, the foundation of our pyramid is our creed. It all starts with that. And one of the things that I think is really important is good or bad. If you ever have, you know, we start, why bring a player in to have a meaningful conversation? and I want to point out, hey, this is, you did this really well, and this is right in the creed. There's a guy that might be misguided. And I say, hey, let's, let's go through the creed. Where do we go wrong?

I mean, it's, it's, Ryan, it is uncanny. It's all right there. Yeah. But we've been able to really just bring things really close together. And it's not a lot. You know, it's like the old adage, like, do a little a lot, not a lot of little. and that's who we are. But to your point, what we've been able to do

is we've been able to really generate the opportunity to make it a player-led team. And I think a lot of our success has become of that. And our ability to really handle adversity is because of that. Because the guys are really not only there for each other, but willing to do things for each other because they know that

if there can be accountable to each other and can generate success with each other, it's true and it's real. I mean, it's also right there in the creed. I challenge my brother, believe in him, hold him accountable. I mean, that's part of the ethos of the whole program. In addition to that, and I love traditions, as you could potentially tell, Coach. One of your other traditions is about the brick. What's the brick? What does that stand for?

and why did you institute this and what do you get out of it? I'm always looking for ways to get guys to learn more about each other in unconventional ways. And, you know, football has a tendency to be, I don't know, macho might be an old word that, you and I grew up in our high school. But guys don't want to be as open because they're, you know, they're kind of afraid to let their guard down. So what we do is we go to Home Depot and we buy these 88 centric. And we ask the players, hey, we need you to take this brick. And on four of the sides of the bricks, your hero, your hardship, your hometown, and your highlight in your life.

Okay. Say that again. A hero. Yep. Hometown. Hometown. Harchip and highlight. Gotcha.

Okay. And then the other two sides, we want you to talk about somebody else or your position group. Talk about somebody else in the team that has impacted you in whatever way. And on the final side of the brick, you're one word for the season and why. And what we do, so our captain and myself, we go on the first night. And I get up in front of the team and I talk about my six sides of the brick. And our captain does as well.

And then what we do is we basically take the team and mix them up. And at the end of every practice or a meeting or in preseason and a meal, I'll have two or three or four guys stand up in front of the team and talk about their brick. And Ryan, the things that you find out about guys is remarkable. And I can't tell you how many times I'll have a conversation. with a player after and thank them for being that open and vulnerable with their teammates and their coaches. And our coaches, the same. And we have it with our sports performance people, our trainers, our doctors. Like everyone gets up in front of the team, everyone that has a piece of the team. Because that team, that has an opportunity to get closer and closer and better and better.

And what we do is our stadium is one of three like in the country. It's a bowl stadium, Yale Bowl, Rose Bowl, Michigan Stadium. You know, all same architect all came up. You know, we have a 65,000-seat stadium. And half of it is underground. So when you come into our stadium, you walk down this tunnel. And what we do in each season is what we do is we take everyone, who has presented their brick, they build it, they build a tunnel, they build a pyramid in the

in the tunnel. So one of the things we talk about is like, hey, how are you going to lay your brick each day, you know, for your teammates? So as the, as a players go and they lay their bricks, our team stacks them in the tunnel. And one of the things I'm most proud about is that as the bricks get laid in the tunnel, the team every day makes sure that they're, you know, perfect's probably not the right word, but laid really, really intentionally. At the end of the season, if your team wins a championship, that team's bricks stay in the tunnel. So, and we put team, team 149 or team 150 in the tunnel right above the bricks. And so those bricks stay there. As long as we, as I'm here, they're in the tunnel. That is really cool. Speaking of you being there,

I read a story about how you got hired. I'm overly fascinated by how people earn jobs. I think there's usually good stories and how somebody became the CEO or how somebody became the head coach of Yale's football team. And I read, tell me if this is correct, that there was a guy, Casey Gerald, maybe, and 63 other former players wrote letters to the athletic director Tom Beckett on your behalf saying basically you need to hire this dude. Tony Reno needs to be the guy. So that is wild to me. Can you take me inside that story of all of your guys that you've coached writing letters to the athletic director saying that they needed to hire you? Yeah, I can't tell you just how honored I was to have players speak on your behalf. And the coach

before me, he was let go and Casey called me. and said, would you be interested? And I said, geez, how could I not? And I reminded him, I say, Kay, you just could remember. Like, I might not be as experienced or as old or, you fill in the blank. And he said, don't worry about that.

And I said, okay. I said, yeah, if they would like to interview me, I wouldn't say no. And I didn't know until I was on campus for an interview. And I was sitting with Tom and he told me that that a number of players had written letters on my behalf. And it was, you know, one of the most flattering things that ever had happened in my life. And so I was very fortunate. And Casey, I coached Case and he was a defensive back.

I was a secondary coach when I was here as an assistant. And I didn't know. Maybe after the first couple of years, they might have been thinking twice about it. But I was very fortunate that they, that they, that they, did and and hopefully we've we've done them proud why do you think all those guys wrote those letters about you you know i think i think the most important thing for me when i was an assistant coach is the same thing that is important to me and now is it's the relationships with the players honestly that's why i do this people ask all the all the time what's the you know oh the wins and

the championships and it's really not that it's the relationships All the things that make this special is the ability to build relationships with people and relationships with the players and just see them grow as men. When we say we want to build the greatest leadership program for Division I football players and college football, and we check ourselves constantly to make sure that everything is coming from that. Because it's so easy to lose sight of what the main thing is. And I say to the players all the time and our coaches,

like you can't lose sight of what the main thing. And we have to always make sure that the main thing is the main thing. And if we do that, we're doing it right by our players. What is the main thing for you? What's the main thing for your players? What is that? Well, the main thing for me is always putting the players first. You know, players first, number one, in everything we do.

And making sure that we are continually, building leaders, you know, and there's a lot of times, you brought it up a few minutes ago. The player led are coach fed, right? There's two different ways of running a team. And we're so player led. Sometimes you have to bite your, you have to bite your tongue. Because leadership doesn't just happen. It happens organically. And it has to have failure in it. Because if there's not failure in it, then, you know, you're never going to get the greatest, part of leadership, which is a group of people coming together to accomplish a common goal. So sometimes my coaches come in and they want to take the wheels and I'm like, no, this is,

we're going to let them figure this out. Like, they'll come to us. It's like parenting, isn't it? It's so hard. But when they fall off the bike, you want to be there and you want to catch them and you want to pick them up, but you know that it's better for them if they actually get themselves up off the bike crash, even if they're crying. It's so tough, right?

especially for type A control freaks, like a lot of football coach, like I am, a lot of football coaches are you want to do it, but you also know for the betterment of the person, for the betterment of the team, that sometimes you got to, for lack of a better word, chill out or stand back. How do you balance that? That's really hard. It is because you think you know what the best thing is, right? But essentially for me and my role, I have a guy who played for me, He's Seby Little, and he's an incredible leader, and he runs a high performance program. And he always talks about presidential leadership. And a lot of that is really finding a way to lead people, but not do it for them.

And trust your leadership and your ability to groom them. For us, like, our leadership is a four-year program. As my friend Greg Vogel says all the time, it's 25-8. It's not, it's got, it's all, all the time. It's all the time of finding ways to, to help these guys build and build together. And it's okay to have failure. Because if you're going to have a player-led team, you're going to be okay with that. And I don't know if everyone is.

And I think in corporations, it's very similar. But if you want to, if you want to be elite, I don't know if there's another way to do it. It's the best and the hardest thing to do because it also takes time. I remember doing this. I ran sales teams before doing this full time, coach, and my favorite teams, my best teams, the ones that absolutely destroyed the number, whatever goal the company set for us were player led. And there was a little luck involved of maybe making a few good early hires.

But then once you empower them and you have a little mini leadership council within your sales team. It's literally, it's very similar to a football team or to any sports team where then you've got to give them power and control and say, let's go. Like you come up with the themes and ideas. I'm here. I got your back. I support you. But then once you see that machine get rolling, oh my goodness, it's impossible to stop it. And then they become like a recruiting machine. I wonder how that works for you guys too, because it attracts other high performers. They want to be a part of that team, whether they're inside the company or outside the company, and that was one of the most gratifying parts, was seeing how it was like this magnetic pull for other high achievers

wanting to come to your team. Have you seen that? Because now you guys have gotten so good. Like you're winning a ton. You win championships. You got to get good players to do that. I got to imagine part of all of this stuff you started building with General McChrystal many years ago is what's probably had that magnetic pull for great people and great players to come. to your program. Well, flat out. We wouldn't be anywhere close to where we are today without that relationship with General McChrystal and his influence and others influence that work with him. We are. Now, it's really interesting what you said because eight, nine years ago, we would bring recruits to campus and the players really might not, we'd had some players who really understood,

understood who we were and what the mission and vision was. Now, I mean, Ryan, we bring kids to campus. They're on campus getting hosts, they're hosting people, and they'll come into my office two days in and go, coach, this is not our kind of guy. Oh, yeah. And I will 100% trust them. I mean, last year, we had three players we brought on campus and we didn't take in the class, three really good players and they explain to me why and i you know i'm okay man it's your team i don't know how many other programs run that way but that's how we run and it's really like as you said like that's so empowering for your players though i mean like that's true because you because you might look at the tape and you're like guys this guy can really take the top off the defense but you're

like we really want this guy and you're like now the character element comes before that Yeah, absolutely. I think it's really amazing that our guys do it at such a high level, and they understand it at such a high level. You mentioned earlier about the reason that those letters were written was because you're in it for the relationships. You love building the relationships. Can you go inside your thought process? What does it actually look like? Specific examples, if you have those, that's even better. Because I think we all realize, yeah, it's probably important to have good relationships. relationships with people. It's more gratifying. It's more fun. But what do you actually do to develop such good, tight, trusting relationships with both, I would imagine, your coaching staff and your players? A couple things. One is you have to give your players the ability to do what you told them you were going to do in the

recruiting process. Now, it doesn't have anything to a playing time or that's, hey, that's going to work itself out on the field. But it's how are you going to treat them? And how are you going to treat them? And how you're going to spend more time with guys that might not be playing as much and let them understand how important they are to the team. And at the end of every practice, we award the player of the day on offense and defense. And I'll tell you, Ryan, like, for me, and I'm fortunate, you know, 90% of time, I'm usually the one that's awarding it. And I'm looking for the guy who does the uncommon.

It could be a scout team guy. It could be a guy who was injured, but he was, like, busting his tail. making sure his teammates got extra water or was the guy who was making sure that he was signaling because he knew that that's all he could do that day or all the things that are uncommon or a guy who stepped in for someone because someone was injured and he made an amazing play and I think that's the most important thing but the reason I do it that way is because that's what matters the most to me it's not the guy who scores all the touchdowns or makes all the blocks or the tassing all the blocks of the tackles. It's the guy who does the small things first teammates.

Who lives by the creed, right? Who makes the creed true, right? Values aren't actually, they're not values unless you do them. It sounds simple, but we go to companies all over the place and you see values. There's values on every company's walls, right? The real point is the leader, the CEO, which is you catching people living out those values and then yelling it from the rooftops. This is the player of the day because this guy lived out our creed today. And coach, one of the things we focused on throughout our entire conversation is just this your people first approach, your players first approach, the fact that you've said that every class is they're not necessarily judged based on wins and losses, but by leaving the jersey

better than they found it. But you also are in an industry where you have a very visible scoreboard, right? You either win the game or you lose the game. You win the Ivy League. or you don't. And if you spend enough time losing, you get fired, right? You're in a results oriented business. You will eventually get fired if you lose too much. How do you balance out this idea of players first, of relationships, of process, all of that with the fact that you also are in a pretty black and white industry of wins and losses. And if you don't get enough Ws, they kick you out of there. Oh, 100%.

If you look at the top of our pyramid every year, it says elite football team. And that's in a lot of ways, right? That's how we conduct ourselves on and off the field, how we conduct ourselves as teammates, and, you know, the success we have. Are we able to win football games? And all of those things lead us to being an elite football team. What's happened now is that our players have, it's become the, It's become the standard that winning a championship every year is the standard.

It's the standard of Yale football. But how you conduct yourself is also a standard of Yale football. And how you are as a team is a standard of Yale football. So I think the biggest piece is that this is the players that really elevated, really the mission and vision being, hey, let's win some games when we first got here. or now it's like, hey, now we want to be an elite team. And to be an elite team, we need to do these things. The cool thing about it, when you're so process oriented, so relationship focused,

is if somebody, I'm just, I just keep rereading your creed like I did leading up to this because I love it, is the fact that if you actually live that thing out every day, and if you're a player or you're a coach or you're anyone a part of your program, and then you could honestly ask yourself before you're going to bed each night, did I live this out honestly? Did I do it for real? And if all of your people are being able to say, yeah, I did that today. And then they say that, yeah, I did that today.

And the next day and the next day, you're going to win a ton of games. You're going to win a ton of games if everyone's affirmatively living out the creed. So that's what I love the process matching up with the results is if you actually live that thing out each day, my guess is you're going to win a ton of games. Absolutely. You know, I think now to where we've gotten, and this is all the players, you know, I mean, I always say, like, to the guys, like, I'm such a small piece of this. Our players are just amazing and how, you know, how they've really bought into each other. Like you said, they're willing to congratulate and bring each other along. Like, hey, when there's a guy that needs some seasoning, sometimes, they're willing to bring them along. They're not going to let it just go by. yeah, that's the goal, right? It's like they understand that if we don't do these things, our chance to have success is going to be diminished and sometimes it will be impossible. Yeah. Coach, one more before we run, you're working with young leaders who are going to go out

in the world and leave a dent, right? And so I'm curious for the person who's like a recent college grad, maybe some of your players and former players, but in general, a recent college grad who wants to leave a positive dent in the world. But they're not like, like a lot of us when we're that age, we're not exactly sure what we're going to do or how we're going to live that out. What are some general pieces of life slash career advice you'd give to that person? So when we bring players here to Yale, I say to them two things is in recruiting. We're going to help you become the best version of yourself in all you do.

And as I mentioned earlier, we're going to make sure that. we do our very best to make you an elite leader. But we're going to make sure that we make sure we maximize your football ability because our players all want to have an opportunity to play at the next level. We've got eight guys in the NFL right now. And the last piece is, which is probably the most important one outside of leadership is we're going to help you find your passion. And that's the piece that I say to guys, sometimes at nauseam is, hey, what's your passion? What do you love doing? And sometimes you don't know that, you know, but I continually try and help them find their passion.

And we have a great crew of people that do a much better job in our player development program it does for that. But for me, that's it. So, like, one is find your passion because it's going to be a lot more fun going to work each day doing something you have passion for. And then the second piece is find a way to leave it better than you found it. whether it's your family every day or it's your church or your community or your business whatever it is because if you feel like you can leave it better than you found it every day like a small

that 1% every day i mean think about how much better you're doing for everybody else man i love that i so feel that one of my core values coaches being thankful and the way i live that out to make sure it's true is to leave it better which means to leave people places and things better than i found them And that's the question I ask at the end of the day is that I do that. That's the only way to truly live out that value. Because I think when you've been given a lot, you should give a lot. And one of the ways to give is just to leave it better, right? Leave people place and things.

So that's why I'm so in line with what you're saying when it comes to leave the jersey better than you found it. Because if you really think about that, like these guys, especially coming in now, they're finding it in a really good spot. It's in a really good position. So to leave it better is hard. That's a challenge. And I think is a great challenge for people. They're going to be so better off when they leave Yale than when they got there. Not only counting the fact that it's such an amazing academic institution, but being a part of your football program is going to help them be such an amazing leader.

Coach, I really appreciate this, man. I love the intersection of sports and leadership and football and just how it can change people's lives. Thank you for being here. And I would love to continue our dialogue as we both progress, man. Oh, absolutely. It's been a joy. And as you said, we're saying the same thing over and over. I really appreciate you having me on.

And I look forward to doing this again at some time. Love it, love it. Thank you so much, ma'am. It is the end of the podcast club. Thank you for being a member of the end of the podcast club. If you are, send me a note, Ryan at learningleader.com. Let me know what you learn from this great conversation with coach Tony Reno. And a reminder, if you are a growth-focused, ambitious,

coach who wants to leave your players better than you found them, then applications are currently open for the arena. That is our coach's learning leader circle. There is a lot more to learn and the application is at learning leader.com slash arena. That's learning leader.com slash arena. If you are a coach who wants to make a difference, go to learning leader.com slash arena. Okay. A few takeaways from my notes. I love the idea of having a team creed. I think all teams, both in sports and business, should do this. If you were going to write a creed for what it meant to be a part of your group,

what would you say? Maybe this is a great exercise for you to do with your team at your next meeting. Then I also love that 64 of his former players went to bat for him when he was interviewing for the head coaching position at Yale. The fact that he impacted so many people while he coached them as a lot. an assistant speaks volumes. He didn't have the necessary experience to get the job, but his ability to take care and love for his people, set him apart and helped him earn the job. And then, how about the tradition of the brick? Hero, hometown, hardship, highlight, someone that has impacted

you, and then one word for the season. We could all do this. In fact, I think that could be a cool tradition to start at your company. Once again, I would say thank you so much for continuing to spread the message and telling a front door to, hey, you should listen to this episode of The Learning Leaders Show with Coach Tony Reno. I think he'll help you become a more effective leader because you continue to do this. And you also go to Spotify and Apple Podcasts and subscribe to the show and rate it, hopefully five stars and write a thoughtful review by doing all of that. You give me the opportunity to do what I love on a daily basis.

And for that, I will forever be grateful. Thank you so, so much. Talk to you soon. Can we?